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Georges-Pierre Seurat
Georges-Pierre Seurat was born on Dec. 2, 1859, in Paris, France. As a child, he admired artists such as Rembrandt. Seurat’s life was comfortable; his parents were well-to-do and encouraged him to study art. He became a very successful artist, and a leader of artistic movements.
Seurat approached art in a scientific way, by studying color theories and the effects of different linear structures. His 500 drawings alone establish Seurat as a great master, but he will be remembered for his technique called pointillism (or divisionism) which uses small dots of contrasting color, packed closely together, to create paintings. When two colors are next to each other, the viewer’s eye mixes them (optical mixing). Optical mixing (instead of blending paint colors together on the canvas) makes a painting appear brighter.
Seurat liked pointillism because this technique resulted in brighter paintings. He found that the colors of traditional brush-stroke paintings can appear dull. Sometimes Seurat used sticks to make the dots (instead of using paintbrushes).
One of Seurat’s most well known pointillism paintings is his masterpiece, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” (1884-1886). It is considered to be one of the most remarkable paintings of the 19th century. This huge oil-painting can be seen at the Art Institute in Chicago. It took Seurat two years to complete the painting because pointillism takes much more time than traditional brush strokes. The 81-inch by 120-inch painting is made of about 3,456,000 dots. Oil paint works well for pointillism because thick oil paint does not run together; colors are kept separate.
George Seaurat died at the age of 31, as the result of diptheria. His artworks and techniques live-on; continuing to influence people around the world.
Scroll down to see artwork by Seurat...
"Sunday Afternoon on the
Island of La Grande Jatte";
Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte
1884-86;
Oil on canvas, 81 x 120 in; Art Institute of Chicago
"Bathing at Asnières";
79 x 118 1/2 in; National Gallery, London
Une Baignade, Asnières
1883-84 (retouched 1887);
Vase of Flowers
View of Fort Samson, Grandcamp 1885
(130 Kb); Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 32 in
Ville-d'Avray, White
Houses. c. 1882. Oil on canvas. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool,
UK
Rock-Breakers, Le Raincy.
c. 1882. Oil on canvas. Norton Simon Art Foundation, Pasadena, CA, USA
Seated Woman.
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